Some say Cowboys are better off with Orton

Posted by Mike Florio on December 28, 2013, 11:17 AM EDT

AP

Many believe that the Cowboys have no chance to beat the Eagles without Tony Romo at quarterback. Many think that Cowboys have what quickly has become the most overused NFL-related cliche’ — “a puncher’s chance.”

Some actually believe that the Cowboys have a better chance to win with Kyle Orton in and Tony Romo out. Some of those have past connections to the Cowboys.

Count former Cowboys (and 49ers and Eagles and Bills and Bengals) receiver Terrell Owens among those who think Dallas can reverse its recent fate in NFC East title games with Orton under center.

“I do,” Owens told NFL Network, via the Dallas Morning News. “If you look at the situation, if it shakes out and it’s a shootout, late in the game everybody is expecting Tony Romo to throw some interceptions. Again, not to take away anything from what he’s done this year. He’s played spectacular. But going into situations like this, everybody expects the obvious, and that’s for him to make a mistake, a huge mistake.”

In all fairness, Owens isn’t exactly unbiased. Despite his passive-aggressive “that’s my quarterback” nonsense after a bye-week Mexican vacation potentially undermined Romo’s preparation for an early 2008 playoff game against the Giants, Owens reportedly believed at one point that Romo and tight end Jason Witten were conspiring to get the ball more to Witten and less to the receivers.

Owens isn’t the only former Cowboys player who believes Orton could help the team win. Quarterback Danny White, who served both as backup and starter in Dallas, told The FnA Podcast on AM570 FOX Sports LA that the Cowboys will have a better chance of winning with Romo out and Orton in.

“As crazy as this may sound, I think their chances of winning the game just got better,” White said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen backup quarterbacks come in and it just raises the level of intensity, their level of concentration. They’ll either crater and go right in the tank, or they’ll rise to the occasion. Every guy will play just a little bit better.”

While fellow former Cowboys quarterback Babe Laufenberg stopped short of saying the team is better off sans Romo, Laufenberg thinks the offense will be in good hands.

“I really do have great confidence in Orton,” Laufenberg told Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News. “When the Cowboys signed him they thought he was the best guy out there. He has gone from the 45th most important player on the roster to No. 1.”

The Cowboys are hoping to finish No. 1 in the NFC East for the first time since 2009, after losing a chance to do so in 2011 and 2012. If that happens, both the Cowboys (since 1997) and Orton (for his career) will move more than No. 1 game above .500 in the win-loss column.

T.O. on Romo: “… Again, not to take away anything from what he’s done this year. He’s played spectacular. But going into situations like this, everybody expects the obvious, and that’s for him to make a mistake, a huge mistake.”

The world on T.O.: … Again, not to take away anything from what he’s done in his career. He’s often played spectacular. But going into situations like , everybody expects the obvious, and that’s for him to profoundly and permanently resent ever drinking the Kool Aid and bringing him onto their team.

I’m not a big Dallas or Romo fan, but I’m hard pressed to see how Dallas is better with Kyle Orton than Tony Romo. It is a nice sound bite for TV, but really? No.

Orton has good game experience and can be above average at times. I can see why Danny White would get excited about him, because he is basically Danny White 2.0. Granted what Danny said about a one game pick me up has some validity. But I’d say that’s a stretch.

Romo presses at the end of a game. Been throwing a lot of game killers, which makes it fun to watch the Dallas fans at the sports bar cry, so he has plenty of issues. However, Orton is not better than Romo.

BTW, it’s a moot issue with the Dallas defense playing awful, which sure doesn’t help the offense.

Romo gave them the best chance to win. The guy is a top 6-10 qb in the league. Too much credit has been given to a handful of passes. Does he occasionally seal a game away for the other team? Without a doubt. Does he put the team on his back and put 40 pts on the board? Absolutely. A football game is the culmination of plays in the game, not 1 or 2.

Terrell Owens mental stability has been in question for quite some time now, It’s an inane statement to believe you have a better chance with a guy who hasn’t played in 2 years, in place of Romo who has over 30 TD’s this season, come on.

Tony Romo is so under appreciated. That defense is statistically worse than the 1-15 year and the worst in franchise history. Without Romo they would likely be competing for number one overall pick in April.

There are about 20 teams who would love to have him as there starter and he would likely be much better. The drama the media and owner create in Dallas handicap the team.

He certainly has some influence but he can’t win a Super Bowl himself. It’s unfortunate that will be the only measuring stick for his career because he’ll likely never win a championship in Dallas. Is he Peyton Mannin or Drew Brees? No. But put him in San Francisco and I think he could take that team all the way. Likewise in Cincinnati. Those are better teams with lesser quarterbacks.

Yeah, the game killers — like the two 4 th down conversions in a 10 point 4th qtr comeback last week. Guess which QB has the most 4th qtr comebacks in the league since 2009? Romo does. Although you wouldn’t know it based on the almost visceral hatred directed at Romo.

Another interesting fact is that the current favorite as the best QB in the league, Arron Rogers, is 0-19 in 4th qtr comebacks against teams with a winning record.

I think the only reason you could claim the Cowboys are in a better spot is because without Romo maybe they commit to the run game this week. Murray gets lots of carries, and some play action passes sprinkled in with a few shots down the the field to wr’s.

They would have loss either way. Romo is just as much of a failure for what he does after the whistle blows than during play. He doesn’t celebrate with teammates after a TD, he yells at recievers and O’Linemen constantly for what are his mistakes. He isn’t a good team guy and has won so little for the amount of money he makes and national praise he garners. To call him under appreciated is rediculous. There is no such thing as a 100+million dollar QB who is under appreciated.

All of these former Cowboys, as do most of the teams’ fans, ignore some basic things–
1. Orton has not had a meaningful snap in 2 years. Preseason is not meaningful. And I don’t care how much of a good backup you are, you have to have some playing time to get you used to the speed of the game, etc. This is going to be a playoff game.

2. I’ve seen a lot about how they’ll lean on DeMarco Murray–except the Eagles have shut down Matt Forte, Alfred Morris, Rashard Mendenhall, et all in the last month alone. And if the Eagles jump on Dallas like they did Chicago, well, why run the ball.

3. I’ve seen a lot of Dallas games and lately, they’ve been getting destroyed on the ground between the tackles. Washington alone, last week, ran the same inside play 5 times in one drive and Dallas never stopped it.

4. The last thing is that everyone said in the first game that it was the Dallas defense that stopped Nick Foles. I’ve just seen the game again, and while Dallas pressured him to start the game, it was Nick Foles that beat himself. Missed and open reciever in Celek that would have netted a long TD–there wasn’t anyone in the same zip code as him; missed an open D Jackson down the middle and then threw it too late; missed an open D Jackson down the right sideline; threw behind an open J Maehl, an open Jason Avant (twice), and open Zak Ertz, and last but not least, underthrew terribly an open Jason Avant in the end zone–again, no one in the same zip code.

5. The other thing is the Cowboys have no Sean Lee and he above anyone was responsible for holding McCoy. Holloman, is making his 2nd start–EVER–at MLB. I just can’t see him making a difference and I don’t think they’ll be running so many wide plays.

If the Eagles bring their A game it doesn’t really matter what Orton does. The Eagles are more talented and healthy at this point in the season so it’s gonna be tough for Dallas to keep up if the Eagles execute. Oh yeah, and Jason Garrett is the coach of the Cowboys. Nuf said.

Danny White is absolutely correct. When a star QB goes down, every other player on the team steps their game up just a little. It creates an “us against the world” or “Nobody believes in us” atmosphere in the locker room. The rest of the team knows that they don’t have that star QB to bail them out in a shootout so it’s now on everyone else to carry the team.

Although I’m expecting them to win tomorrow, those people are stupid. The Cowboys always have put way too much on Romo’s plate. A stronger running game and taking the ball out of his hand from being a gun slinger much like Brett Favre had done to him under Holmgren and when Mike McCarthy came to Green Bay would have gone a long way to helping the guy’s career. With weak coaches like Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett, it’s no wonder that the Cowboys are in this endless loop of mediocrity. A stronger head coach would have realized this years ago, limited him to around 25 to 30 pass attempts a game, and built the team around a strong running game foundation, and no, that’s not the oft injured Demarco Murray.

Romo gets far too much criticism. He is much better than Orton. Most of the Romo haters would be surprised if they look up the Cowboys qb history. Romo is #1 in most categories. Staubach had great defenses. Aikman had HOFers all over the team. Both had better coaches and more talented teams and that’s where the trophies came from.

Babe will never say the Cowboys are better w/o Romo. He’s been driving the Romo bandwagon since he’s been in Dallas.

I don’t think the Cowboys are better on offense w/o Romo, but Orton will rely on the running game more and feed Murray. The guy leads the league in yards per rush and only has 3 20+ carry games this season. Orton will get the ball out faster than Romo as well, which could be good or bad.

All the Romo talk means nothing Sunday night if the Cowboys don’t get at least 3 turnover and hold Philly to 23 points or less.

Here’s the thing about Romo, sure he is statistically sound, even above average. He has talent, escapability, accuracy and a great passer rating. He is in the top quarterback categories and he has a lot of 4th quarter comebacks and is the key to victories in many games. The thing is he has done all of these things in meaningless games. Right or wrong, the QB takes the responsibility for team wins and losses in the NFL, it’s just how it is.
Put him in a crucial, meaningful situation and he comes up short. That’s why people criticize him. He has not won big, meaningful games. A lot of this is due to his supporting cast, offense and defense. It’s poor drafting and horrible depth that sees the team implode every year. Poor coaching as well. Romo may be better than Aikman and Staubach as a qb, but those guys won BIG games consistently. Again, they had better teams, but it’s a W-L league.
Until Romo leads the team to a big win in a meaningful game, wins more than 1 playoff game in his long career, he’ll just have good stats.

Romo is the equivalent of many backup quarterbacks in the NFL, so why couldn’t Orton or Kitna either one do as well?

I have never agreed with anything Danny White said until now, but he has actually said something that makes sense.

If Troy Aikman says they are better off without Romo, then believe it.

If Jerry would have just recognized last year before offering Romo that ridiculous contract that the Cowboys are better off without Romo, we’d be free of the dumbass now. Maybe the Cowboys would have sucked, but at least they might have been motivated to get a better quarterback. Now they’re just going to hang their hopes on Romo for another five years.

And is Romo really going to get any better than he was before the back surgery? Aging and nagging back injury =/= star quarterback.

I do hope that ‘Pocket Sloth’ Orton does well. From the time he took over for Rex Grossman and led the Bears to the playoffs only to be sent to the bench so Grossman could flame out that Bears season to going to Denver where they were angry to have lost Cutler and spending a couple seasons with a seething mad fan base to the rest of his ill fated career – All of that has prepared the Pocket Sloth for this very moment. Another hopeless situation with no chance of being the hero no matter what happens. If he wins then Jerry Jones will go up there and take the credit for being smart enough to have hired Kyle. If he wins everything up the Super Bowl a red faced Jerry Jones will hoist the trophy and pronounce that Tony Romo is his guy and Kyle ‘The Pocket Sloth’ Orton will shuffle off knowing he’ll soon be cut so Romo doesn’t feel uncomfortable being in the same locker room with Kyle. As a Denver fan I’ll be rooting for Kyle. For the lols, for the pathos, for the drama that is Jerry’s World.

I agree that they have a better chance of winning with Orton. If nothing else, it is going to force the Cowboys to run the ball more, giving them better balance, and when Murray gets 25-30 touches per game, they’re a better team. Running the ball more will also allow them to control the TOP & if you keep the Eagles offense off the field, they can’t score. The formula to beat the Eagles is to control the ball & keep their offense on the sideline & an Orton-led Cowboys offense has that formula more than a Romo-led Cowboys offense. With that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dallas wins a close game or if the Eagles blow out the Cowboys. Surprised would be the Cowboys blowing out the Eagles or the Eagles winning a close game. The closer the game is, the better it is for Dallas.

I remember a Orton that came into an unbeatable Green Bay Packer Stadium and won, shocking the world. He played for the Chiefs, whom had a losing record, but that day the Packers Defense didn’t have an answer for Orton.
I am not a Cowboys fan, but I would love to see them beat the Eagles. And as a Bears fan, it was all so sweet to see Orton beat the Packers.
I often wondered what would have happened with the Bears if Orton stayed and the Bears just skipped the Cutler experiment.